Wyman Institute News & Events – November 2011

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council member Archie Rand will be featured in an episode of “Building NY: New York Stories,” on Michael Stoler’s television series, The Stoler Report. The episode will be shown on CUNY TV (Channel 75 Time Warner, Channel 77 RCN) on Nov. 23 (5:30 AM), Nov. 24 (11:30 PM), Nov. 26 (12:00 noon and 12:30 AM), and Nov. 27 (6:00 PM). It can also be viewed at www.michaelstoler.com

Academic Council member Prof. Myrna Goldenberg will speak on “Women and the Holocaust” on December 15, at 2:30 PM, at the Women of Reform Judaism 48th Assembly, which will take place as part of the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial Conference at the Gaylord National Hotel in Washington, D.C. (Information: http://urjbiennial.zerista.com/ )

The 42nd Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches, under the leadership of Academic Council member Prof. Marcia Littell (Richard Stockton College of New Jersey) will be held May 12-14, 2012, at Monroe Community College, in Rochester, NY. Academic Council member Prof. Richard Libowitz (Saint Joseph’s University) is executive director of the Conference. The conference theme is “70 Years Later: The Lingering Shadow of Wannsee.” Proposals for papers should be submitted to asc@monroecc.edu by January 20, 2012. For more information, call 585-292-3321.

ARTICLES, EXHIBITS, PROJECTS:

The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor falls into the rabbit hole of her parents’ divorce–and finds the secret to her own survival in ‘The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,’ a novel by Arts & Letters Council member Prof. Thane Rosenbaum (Fordham U. Law School), just published by Texas Tech University Press. (Order from 800-621-2736 or www.ttupress.org) Thane moderated a recent session of Fordham’s Forum on Law, Culture & Society (of which he is director) featuring Robert and Michael Meeropol, the sons of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and a screening of the Sidney Lumet film “Daniel,” about the Rosenberg case. New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman also took part in the discussion. On November 17, Thane delivered the 2011 Passie Hinden Burch/Vivian Cohen Burch Lecture on Holocaust Literature, at Binghamton University.

Academic Council member Prof. Stephen H. Norwood (U. of Oklahoma) authored “In Denial: American Universities’ Response to the Third Reich: Past and Present,” in the Fall 2011 issue of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

Wyman Institute Board of Directors member Robert Weintraub is giving a three part lecture on “American Jews and the Holocaust,” at the seniors group of the Manhattan Jewish Community Center. Audience reaction has been very enthusiastic.

“The Anglican Church of Canada, from Conversion to Dialogue: the case of Roland deCorneille, 1961-1970,” by Academic Council member Prof. Haim Genizi (Bar Ilan University) was published in the Summer 2011 issue of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

Advisory Committee member Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin, president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, spoke on November 12 at Congregation Beth Am, in Baltimore, about ‘The Student Struggle Against the Holocaust,’ the book he recently coauthored with Dr. Rafael Medoff. The Schechter Institute has just released an updated 2nd edition of ‘Friends Across the Ocean,’ its Hebrew-language textbook on Israel-Diaspora relations for middle schools and high schools, which is used at the 90 Israeli schools (with 40,000 students) belonging to its “Tali” educational network; the new edition includes a chapter on the Bergson Group, using material provided in part by the Wyman Institute.

A Russian-language edition of ‘Alexandra’s Scroll,’ a historical novel for young people about the first Hanukka, by Arts & Letters Council member Miriam Chaikin, has just been published.

A program featuring Arts & Letters Council member Dr. Nathan Moskowitz and his Shoah Forensic Art Institute was held recently at Congregation Adat Chaim in the Reisterstown section of Baltimore. The project engages students to create portraits of Holocaust victims by using descriptive data that the Nazis compiled concerning Jews in the death camps. For the local newspaper’s feature story on the project, see: http://reisterstown.patch.com/articles/remembering-those-lost-in-the-holocaust-through-art

Advisory Committee member Prof. Shimon Shetreet (Hebrew University) spoke in November at a conference in Berlin on the 50th anniversary of the Eichmann trial. He also took part in “Memory, Trauma, and the Holocaust: A Symposium on ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’,” at Old Dominion University’s Institute for Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding, in Virginia.

Arts & Letters Council member Pierre Sauvage showed his film, “Not Idly By: Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust,” at the Center for Jewish History on November 16. Academic Council member Laurel Leff took part in the panel discussion after the film.

Academic Council Member Zev Garber (Emeritus, Los Angles Valley College) contributed to and edited The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation, published in April by Purdue University Press. His interview on WBAA (NPR affiliate) on the Jewish Jesus can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SAOF-4pFzE. The volume was a featured book event at the Society of Biblical Literature/ National Association of Professors of Hebrew annual meeting in San Francisco, November 20, 2011.Also, “A Symposium on the work of Zev Garber: Reviews of Maven in Blue Jeans” was published in Hebrew Studies 51 (2010), pp. 351-383.

Dr. Rafael Medoff‘s essays “Why Recognizing the Bergson Group Matters” and “American Christian Responses to Kristallnacht” were published recently by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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State Dept Historian Rewrites Holocaust Record

A scholar in the State Department’s Office of the Historian has authored an essay defending U.S. consular officials who rejected visa applications from Jewish refugees in Vichy France in the 1940s, and minimizing the accomplishments of Hiram Bingham IV, a dissident consular official who helped Jews escape France and was punished by the State Department.

Wyman Comic Wins Silver Medal

Karski's Mission, which was authored by Wyman Institute director Rafael Medoff and illustrated by renowned comic book artist Dean Motter, was awarded the Silver Medal in the category of "Graphic Novel/Drawn Book – Drama/Documentary category."

Karski's Mission is based on the true story of Jan Karski (1914-2000), a Polish Catholic and member of the Polish Underground during World War II, who risked his life to bring Allied leaders his eyewitness account of the ongoing slaughter of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Karski's Mission, which was co-published by the Wyman Institute and the Jan Karski Educational Foundation, received additional support from Fundacja Edukacyjna Jana Karskiego, the Association of Friends of the Polish History Museum, Sigmund A. Rolat (chairman of the Wyman Institute's board of directors), Carole Bilina, and John McLees. With assistance from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, a Polish-language edition of Karski's Mission is now being used widely in schools in Poland.